Chapter Eight
METAL LANCE

“IMRT, this is Captain Shining Armor, you’ve got some company headed your way. An Imperial walking tank, codenamed METAL LANCE is headed straight for you and the other armored units. I'll be by to help after I investigate reports of an elite Imperial squad in the city. Better get ready for a fight. Shining out.”

“You heard the Captain, boys; charge up the rail gun and load the 125mm. The Captain’s briefed us on the Empire’s walker, so we know how to fight it. Strap into your seats and get ready” the Commander of the IMRT, Major Rolling Thunder declared, taking his place and looking out through the scope into the streets of the canine capital.

It was hell on his side of the city; the Equestrian Empire was fighting with a bravery the Major had never seen before, and he had long known of their courage from his days as one of them, before Shining Armor and his wife freed them.

As the massive tank turned down what could basically be described as main street Major Thunder peered into the world outside, keeping a keen eye open for METAL LANCE. The highly advanced and experimental ‘thermal imaging’ would allow him to easily spot the heat exerted by the massive machine.

Finishing his perusal of the street Major Thunder ordered the driver to get them moving again when several loud thuds reverberated through the tank, coming from above. Perplexed, the stallions inside could do little except listen. It sounded like something big and heavy was walking over them.

That’s when it hit Major Thunder; METAL LANCE was walking over them.

“Goddess... Everypony stay quiet" the Major said, keeping his eyes out the scope for any sign of the walker. The thumps continued to sound through the motionless tank as the walker stepped all over them. All was still in the tank, fear keeping the stallions inside as quiet as they could be, hoping the pilot of the walker had not seen them and was about to destroy them and their tank.

Suddenly the thermal scope lit up, a massive heat signature appearing on the street not 50 feet ahead of them. It stood upon three legs, and sported an upside-down pyramid as its body at the top of the legs. Its side was facing the PF tank, and its head was turning to face them, ports on the side of its head flashing like eyes as it warmed up its rail gun and prepared to face the IMRT.

What the-?! Was it not walking on us? Where did it even come from?

"Oh Goddess. Get us moving backwards, now! METAL LANCE is right in front of us!" Major Thunder commanded, still bewildered at how the walker had just mysteriously appeared from nowhere. It seemed it had somehow dispelled or sunk all of its heat and moved into position right in front of them when the Major wasn't looking.

The walker finished turning and was now facing them, firing its rail gun directly at the front of the tank. The metal slug was deflected right off the armor by the slanted front and the IMRT retreated in full, METAL LANCE belting out a piercing roar as it slowly pursued.

"Fire the 125 and the rail gun!" Thunder ordered, watching as the weapons officer complied and fired the guns. Both the 125mm shell and the metal slug from the rail gun were vaporized mid-flight by METAL LANCE's anti-missile lasers, and the walker roared triumphantly before the four chain guns on its chin ripped open, spitting thousands of rounds at the heavy tank that scorched and melted and fried her shell.

"Goddess, even its machine guns represent a threat to us?! Stallions, METAL LANCE has superior maneuverability in this environment but we hold the trump card for armor. Keep us moving smart and firing true and we'll have this thing down in no time" the Major assured them.

As the IMRT turned backwards around a bend Major Thunder watched the walker hoist itself up onto the rooftops of several houses and give chase, its legs moving fluently as it quickly stomped over the stone and mortar, bustling like a three-legged spider making a beeline straight for its prey.

There was one other thing METAL LANCE lacked when compared to the IMRT besides the armor; maneuverability of its guns. The walker could only fire its machine guns where the head was facing, and the entire vehicle had to be facing the target the pilot wanted to engage with the rail gun. It could not move any of these weapons independently of their respective body parts.

The IMRT was not plagued with such issues. With both the rail gun and the 125mm mounted in X and Y turret brackets they could move and aim the guns anywhere they pleased, which would give them a considerable advantage along with their armor over METAL LANCE.

The rail gun, which was mounted much higher than the 125, turned and fired directly at METAL LANCE, the slug vaporized once again mid-flight by the lasers.

"Shoot, we gotta take those lasers down before we can engage the walker" Major Thunder lamented, ordering the tank forward again as LANCE began to turn back.

Proceeding down mainstreet again the IMRT kept its rail gun trained on the walker as its treads grinded the cobblestone beneath them; thunder reverberated through the streets orchestrated by the instruments of death, the rail guns, and their composers; METAL LANCE and Intermediate Multi-Role Tank model 96. Plumes of smoke bled into the afternoon sky, created by the fires and flames in the ruined houses and destroyed vehicles. The two machines duked it out like monsters of old Japaneighse films, puppets to destruction at the hooves of their operators.

METAL LANCE reached the edge of the rooftops and leapt down, slamming into the street below with a hefty BOOM and continuing its chase of the Peace Fighter tank. The walker lowered its body and likewise spread its legs out wider, making the entire vehicle closer to the ground and quickening its pursuit speed. IMRT turned its rail gun to fire and the walker moved to the left, passing the heavy tank and the pilot slamming the machine’s head into the treading behemoth* in anger.

Racing ahead of the IMRT METAL LANCE turned its broad side to the tank and the head looked at them, its eye-like viewports flashing once again.

"FIRE!" Major Thunder bellowed, watching as both the 125mm and rail gun trumpeted their mighty roar and fired at METAL LANCE, the rounds slamming into the unprotected upper rim of the anti-missile laser ring, blasting it apart in a spectacular display. The metal ring was ripped from its mount and spun into a nearby house, smashing it apart and flinging thousands of chunks of rock and stone and dust all over METAL LANCE.

Major Thunder peered out the normal scope at the cloud of smoke obscuring the walker from vision, hoping that destroying the anti-missile laser ring had disabled the vehicle. There was heavy movement inside the dust cloud, and the Major couldn't tell one way or the other what was happening to LANCE.

Finally, after a few uncertain moments, from the cloud of smoke and dust came METAL LANCE, fully operational.

But it was different.

Gone was not only the ring, but also the rear, central leg. After it had ditched the rear leg LANCE had shifted its body upwards until the upside-down pyramid was vertical, the flat top and the massive missile pods that comprised the center of the peace sign facing forward. The rail gun had also turned in respect to the body, and was facing forward still. METAL LANCE was now an even larger bipedal walker, and with its increased maneuverability and speed would be an even greater threat to the IMRT.

METAL LANCE's head reared back and it belted its piercing shriek, the sound emanating from a pair of massive speakers built into the 'chin' of the head. Thunder determined that the shrieking was for psychological warfare, as hearing that sound sure made him scared as hell.

There was a hitch to METAL LANCE's new transformation; it still couldn't turn and fire its weapons independently of their respective body parts. So unless LANCE was facing them the only significant threat it would present would be the missiles, of which it only had seven.

All it will take is one lucky hit from those missiles, and we're out. Likewise, it's only gonna take one hit on LANCE's legs or neck to take it down Thunder mused.

METAL LANCEtook the high route and hoisted itself up onto the rooftops, quickly covering the distance to IMRT and turning to engage it. With LANCE turned at an angle to them the rail gun on IMRT turned and fired directly at the right leg of the walker, which surprisingly lifted its leg to dodge the shot.

"What the--? Oh Goddess" Major Thunder commented, astounded at the pilot's quick reflexes. METAL LANCE was about to turn and fire the rail gun at the Peace Fighter tank when a scattering of explosions erupted around the walker. LANCE looked up at the sky and shrieked as a wing of DRAVMs soared overhead, the aircraft bearing the Peace Fighter logo.

"Sorry we're late, I was delayed by one of those elite soldiers I mentioned earlier. ELEMENT GEAR is what they were called, I think. Anyway, how're things here with LANCE? Woah, he's supposed to be tripedal, not bipedal. When did that happen?"Captain Shining Armor said over the radio, apparently in one of the DRAVMs.

"I'll tell you the story later, Sir. Right now we gotta take that walker down!" Major Thunder responded, ordering the IMRT forward as LANCE turned and looked up at the DRAVMs, the pilot contemplating on how he'd deal with the aerial threats. The DRAVMs came back overhead and METAL LANCE opened fire with its machine guns, spitting thousands of rounds at the vehicles while the IMRT prepared to fire.

The walker looked back down at the tank just as the rail gun fired, a massive metal slug slashing along the afternoon sky and reaching the right leg of LANCE in the blink of an eye. The solid steel slammed directly into the walker's leg and it buckled, its right side collapsing and the upper body of the machine propped up by its rail gun. LANCE shrieked and struggled to stand back up, meeting with failure each time.

Major Thunder allowed a smile to spread across his face and was about to order the rail gun to fire again when the top-most missile cover was blasted off by the primer caps and a 120mm warhead rocketed out of the tube, flying straight and true and detonating against the side of the rail gun, severely damaging and disabling it.

"Goddess! Captain, we're gonna need some help to fight this thing! See if you can lure it off the rooftops" the Major declared, ordering IMRT forward and away from the walker as it roared triumphantly.

"Sure thing, Major. We'll get that walker down in the streets" Captain Armor responded, his wing of DRAVMs opening fire with their guns and rockets, the weapons inadequate to truly damage LANCE but definitely enough to piss the pilot off. The pony inside responded by unleashing another of the missiles at one of the DRAVMs, one that thankfully missed and flashed across the sky, impacting and detonating on a tower occupied mostly by Imperial soldiers.

Shining knew the pilot was really pissed off now.

The Captain ordered his personal DRAVM over METAL LANCE as the rockets fired at it, catching the attention of the pilot who finally got the walker to stand up on its right leg and give chase. The walker leaped down from the roofs and slammed into the streets, its right side collapsing momentarily before it wobbly stood back up. LANCE looked up at Shining's DRAVM, its narrow and slanted viewports flashing like angry serpent eyes. The guns on the chin opened full fire as two more missiles streaked out for the DRAVM.

Shining's DRAVM banked to the right and dipped down into the streets next block over, the two missiles failing to turn in time and blowing up in the adjacent rooftops. Expecting the DRAVM to emerge around the intersection LANCE turned to the right to face down the street, expecting the DRAVM to come around any second hovering low and exposed.

Instead of the aerial DRAVM, the pilot of METAL LANCE saw IMRT-96 waiting for him in the intersection, the 125mm cannon facing him and his walker, the dark barrel staring him down. Before the pilot could react the DRAVMs came back and unleashed another barrage of rockets on his weakened right leg, completely blasting apart at the joint and forcing LANCE to topple over on a slight angle.

METAL LANCE reared its head back and shrieked into the afternoon sky one last time as IMRT-96's 125 thundered its mighty roar and fired down the street, the massive shell careening past the buildings in a blur. The cannon shell speared through the chin of the walker's head and out through the top, then promptly landing and detonating in the body. The explosion ripped the entire top part of the body apart and METAL LANCE collapsed into the street, bleeding plumes of smoke that added to those that were already tainting the sky.

METAL LANCE, and the threat it represented to the Peace Fighters, was dead.

“Great job, Major, but it’s not over yet. We still have one last job to do; liberate the Canine capital building, the Rotunda, from Imperial control” Shining Armor explained.

“Understood, Captain.”

The fight was just beginning, but Major Thunder knew there was no going back now.

~~~~

Author's Note

*This is a reference to the Shagohod, of Metal Gear Solid 3 fame.

Legal note: Shining Armor, Princess Celestia, and all related characters belong to Hasbro. Major Rolling Thunder and all related characters belong to me. My Little Pony belongs to Hasbro.